science

Obelism

Obelism is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Obelism rather than just read about it. In short: Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript.

Key takeaways

Obelism belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Obelism to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Obelism from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript. Examples are "stet" (which is Latin for "Let it stand", used in this context to mean "disregard the previous mark") and "dele" (for "Delete"). The obelos symbol (see obelus) gets its name from the spit, or sharp end of a lance in ancient Greek. An obelos was placed by editors on the margins of manuscripts, especially in Homer, to indicate lines that may not have been written by Homer. The system was developed by Aristarchus and notably used later by Origen in his Hexapla. Origen marked spurious words with an opening obelus and a closing metobelos ("end of obelus"). There were many other such shorthand symbols, to indicate corrections, emendations, deletions, additions, and so on. Most used are the editorial coronis, the paragraphos, the forked paragraphos, the reversed forked paragraphos, the hypodiastole, the downwards ancora, the upwards ancora, and the dotted right-pointing angle, which is also known as the diple periestigmene. Loosely, all these symbols, and the act of annotation by means of them, are obelism. These nine ancient Greek textual annotation symbols are also included in the supplemental punctuation list of ISO/IEC 10646 standard for character sets.

Modern encoding

Unicode encodes the following:

U+2058 ⁘ FOUR DOT PUNCTUATION (used as an obelism) U+2059 ⁙ FIVE DOT PUNCTUATION (In this context, the Greek pentonkion) U+205A ⁚ TWO DOT PUNCTUATION (used as an obelism) U+205B ⁛ FOUR DOT MARK U+205C ⁜ DOTTED CROSS U+2E0E ⸎ EDITORIAL CORONIS U+2E0F ⸏ PARAGRAPHOS U+2E10 ⸐ FORKED PARAGRAPHOS U+2E11 ⸑ REVERSED FORKED PARAGRAPHOS U+2E12 ⸒ HYPODIASTOLE U+2E13 ⸓ DOTTED OBELOS U+2E14 ⸔ DOWNWARDS ANCORA U+2E15 ⸕ UPWARDS ANCORA U+2E16 ⸖ DOTTED RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE (diple periestigmene) Some of these were also used in Ancient Greek punctuation as word dividers. The two-dot punctuation is used as a word separator in the Old Turkic script.

See also Annotation – Item of metadata attached to a document Aristarchian symbols – Marks to annotate ancient Greek texts Dagger (mark) – Typographical symbol (†). A horizontal form of the dagger mark was used an obelus. Diple (textual symbol) – Symbol used in margins of Greek manuscripts to draw attention to something in text Marginalia – Marks made in margins of book pages List of proofreader's marks General Punctuation – Unicode block containing punctuation, spacing, and formatting characters

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Obelism

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Obelism claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Obelism before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Obelism ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Obelism

In research: Obelism appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Obelism in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Obelism is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ancient Greek language stubs, Ancient Greek punctuation, Palaeography, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Obelism outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Obelism in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Obelism means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Obelism out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Obelism in simple terms?

Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript.

Why does Obelism matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Obelism?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Obelism.